Manchester City will face summer competition from Paris St-Germain and Manchester United for Eliaquim Mangala after abandoning a £50 million deadline-day move for the defender and his Porto team-mate Fernando.

City manager Manuel Pellegrini, who confirmed that leading scorer Sergio Agüero will miss next month’s Champions League clash with Barcelona with a hamstring injury, had been hopeful of securing Mangala and Fernando before Friday night’s 11pm deadline following efforts by director of football Txiki Begiristain to drive through the double transfer.

But despite being encouraged that a deal could be struck with Porto for the two players, City will now renew interest in Mangala at the end of the season after refusing to meet the Portuguese club’s £50 million asking price for the France international and Brazilian midfielder Fernando.

Although City could now pursue alternatives to Fernando, whose Porto contract expires in the summer, it is understood that Mangala will remain a priority target.

City have monitored the 22-year-old for more than 12 months, with Begiristain and Pellegrini both regarding the player as the ideal partner for captain Vincent Kompany at centre-half.

But with Mangala rated as the most promising young defender in Europe, and a potential star of the World Cup with France, City know that PSG and United will challenge for his signature in the summer.

Despite the potential rivalry for the player, however, City pulled out of the move for Mangala and Fernando on Friday afternoon due to a reluctance to pay the fee required by Porto.

While the failure to sign the two players will be regarded as a blow by City, the loss of Agüero for at least a month is a more immediate concern for Pellegrini.

The Argentine forward limped out of the 5-1 win at Tottenham in midweek after pulling his right hamstring. But despite the prospect of Agüero missing two clashes against Chelsea, in the league and FA Cup, the first leg of the Barcelona tie and the Capital One Cup final against Sunderland on March 2, Pellegrini insists that his decision to play the striker against Watford in the FA Cup fourth round was not a factor in the injury.

“No, it was not a mistake,” Pellegrini said. “For us, the most important thing is to win the match that we have to play and, at that moment, we were losing against Watford 2-0.

“It was important for Sergio to continue playing. Maybe if it is a normal game and we were winning, he would play 75 minutes, so it was not an important amount of minutes. Maybe in that game he played 10 or 15 minutes more, but I don’t think that had a direct relation with his injury.

“He is a very important player for us because he is a top player. But we’ve just played one month without him and we have continued winning and continued scoring goals.”